Some places to find writing jobs

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving holiday if you celebrated it last week, and that you survived shopping if you were brave enough to go out this weekend!

There are so many writing job resources and so many niches, that a comprehensive list is rare. We build our resources based on what we need to have and know. This list is a good start, at least, if you’re in need of some places to start looking for writing opportunities.

• Dan Case‘s Writing for Dollars – a weekly e-newsletter jammed with legit paying markets
• Angela Hoy‘s Writers Weekly – resources for writers, including paying markets – and a quarterly 24-hour short story contest that is a lot of fun and offers numerous prizes.
• WritersMarket.com - related to Writer’s Digest Magazine (which also has job opportunities), this online database has a lot of up-to-date markets. Subscription fee.

PayingWriterJobs- this Yahoo group has its worldwide subscribers posting the job opportunities, it’s a community effort. From the site:

This is a mailing list for PAYING writer and editor jobs. It can be Freelance, Staff, Contract, or Permanent, but must PAY. No work for free or chit-chat allowed. This is primarily a network for writers and editors who are looking for work and editors who are looking for professional writers. This is a moderated list, which means the owner approves of all postings.

• On Twitter, you can find various job listing folks to follow such as @writersjobs, @writingjobs @writing_jobs, @dnzwritingjobs, @writethismoment, @dnzcontentwrite, @freelanceWJ, @UOPX (University of Pheonix), @AnneWayman
• Also on Twitter for writers and others: @workfreelancer, freelancejobz4u, @theonlinejobs, @careerbuilder, @AlisonDoyle

Craigslist – Free listings for just about anything you can imagine. But for writers, you can search in your area, or anywhere in the world, under Gigs, Jobs, and Services. It isn’t the best place to find decent writing jobs, but it’s a great place to get new keyword search ideas. Postings that list rates and company names are more trustworthy than anonymous posts that require samples be submitted before payment is discussed.

When looking for writing work, search by area of interest, company you’d love to write for, your location, state/location, editor name, publication name, etc.

You can find writing jobs on LinkedIn, too, by doing keyword searches or even searching by a particular company to see the openings.

The above are some resources I use and think they can get you jump started if you’re looking for writing gigs.

Please add your go-to resources to help our writing community.

Lisa J. Jackson is a New England-region journalist and a year-round chocolate and iced coffee lover. She loves working with words, and helping others with their own. As Lisa Haselton, she writes fiction, co-blogs about mystery-related writing topics at Pen, Ink, and Crimes, has an award-winning blog for book reviews and author interviews, and is a chat moderator at The Writer’s Chatroom. Connect with her on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter. 

Read Full Post »

Day of Gratitude

Happy Thanksgiving!

Gratitude is one of the best feelings we human beings can feel. When you are in a state of appreciation, you cannot at the same time be in a state of fear or lack. So focusing on gratitude can actually improve your day, your mood, and even your sleep. Studies have shown that making a gratitude list, even in your head, before sleep, gives people more and better sleep (this works for children, too.) For more fascinating information about the benefits of gratitude, read Thanks! How Practicing Gratitude Can Make You Happier, by Robert Emmons.

In honor of the Day of Gratitude, I thought I’d offer a little gratitude exercise, especially for writers. I recommend you either print this out and fill in the blanks, as quick as you can, or just jot the answers in your journal as you read through the exercise.

Writer’s List of Gratitude

3 Books I Am Grateful Got Written So I Could Read Them (Okay, not great grammar, but you get me, right?)

My list:

1. I Know This Much Is True, by Wally Lamb
2. Peace Like a River, by Leif Enger
3. Harriet the Spy, by Louise Fitzhugh

Your turn:

1. ___________________________________________________________
2. ___________________________________________________________
3. ___________________________________________________________

3 People Who Support Me As A Writer (Even If Still Have a Day Job.)

My list:

1. My husband
2. My sister
3. The nice lady at the coffee shop who is always friendly whenever I hang out there to write.

Your turn:

1. ____________________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________________
3. ____________________________________________________________

3 Pieces I’m Glad I Wrote:

My list:

1. That spoof on Star Trek back in college for Donna. I had so much fun writing that and I’ve never forgotten it.
2. My first novel, because I never thought I could ever do it.
3. Stupid Girl, an autobiographical poem I wrote, because it got a lot of emotion out of me and onto the page so I could see it and deal with it.

Your turn:

1. _________________________________________________________
2. _________________________________________________________
3. _________________________________________________________

3 Places or Things That Support You As a Writer

My List:

1. A good cup of decaf coffee (You do not want to be in a writing group with me if I’ve had caffeine.)
2. Bonhoeffer’s Café, in Nashua. Great coffee, lots of outlets, and friendly faces.
3. My journal, a true companion. (I use Clairefontaine journals—love them!)

Your Turn:

1. __________________________________________________________
2. __________________________________________________________
3. __________________________________________________________

3 Qualities You Love About Yourself As a Writer 

My List:

1. My attention to detail.
2. My love of grammar.
3. My ability to tell a story.

Your Turn:

1. ___________________________________________________________
2. ___________________________________________________________
3. ___________________________________________________________

Okay, that’s it. Fill this out as fast as you can and bask in your attitude of gratitude. Doesn’t it feel good?

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!
Diane MacKinnon, MD, is thankful for the long holiday weekend and hopeful that she will be able to catch up on her word count for NaNo by Sunday night. She is hosting a Write-In on Saturday, November 24th, at Rodger’s Memorial Library in Hudson, NH, to join other like-minded individuals as they word sprint their way to a finished novel. If interested, or if you’d like more information, please click here.

Read Full Post »

The Everywhen

We’re a week into National Novel Writing Month (NaNo), and I’m way behind. I have written in my calendar on November 10^th: “16,667 words” because that’s a third of the way through the month and a third of the word count required to “win” Nano. It’s now November 7^th and I’ve only written 5000 words.

But you know what? I’m not worried.

I’m a little freaked out that I’m not freaked out.

The last time I did NaNo, I worried about it every day—even the days I had blocked out as non-writing days.

This time, I have this weird feeling that I’ve already won. I don’t mean I’m delusional, I just know that I’m going to win NaNo. It’s a done deal. By November 30^th, I’ll have 50,000 words written.

With that knowledge, I’ve taken time to write when I would normally be doing other things, but I’ve also made the decision not to write (for NaNo) at certain times. Like now.

Knowing I’m going to win NaNo has not made me “lazy” about it, I just don’t have the anxiety that I’ve had in the past over completing almost any task or goal.

This is a shift that I’ve noticed in my entire life, not just in my writing life.

For example, right now, my husband and I are actively trying to get out of debt. When I saw that a Vitamix blender I’d love to have cost hundreds of dollars, I realized it wasn’t in my current budget. But I didn’t feel deprived because I know I’ll have it one day. It feels like I already do. It’s just in a closet in my future, waiting for me to go get it.

One of my greatest teachers, Martha Beck, talks about “the everywhen.” That’s how many ancient cultures think of time, rather than time as a linear construct. Albert Einstein has said: “The distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”

I know I’ve taken us off to the land of woo-woo here, but I find this whole concept very helpful. If my NaNo novel is a part of the “everywhen,” any steps I take in the present moment can’t help but lead me to my (future) win. Therefore, I can take steps from a place of peace and joy, rather than anxiety and tension—which is how I felt in 2008 when I was afraid, all November long, that I wasn’t going to finish my 50,000 words.

This time around, I’m working from a place of peace and confidence, and keeping the tension and anxiety on the page, where it belongs.

It’s like I’ve answered the question: “What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?” I’d win NaNo, that’s what!

If you knew your writing goal was already achieved in your “everywhen,” how differently might you approach your current project?

Diane MacKinnon, MD, is a writer, a life coach, a mother, and a physician. She is currently working on her second Nano novel and hoping to connect with other NH wrimo’s at a write-in on November 24th at Rodger’s Memorial Library in Hudson, NH. For more information about the write-in, please click here.

Read Full Post »

When you’re ready to quit

I recently retweeted a quote someone posted:

When you’re ready to quit, you’re closer than you think.  ~Avinash Wandre

There’s also one considered an old Chinese saying:

“The temptation to quit will be greatest just before you are about to succeed.”

I lived this quote (either version works) years ago and it’s something that has become part of me and I can relate to just about every aspect of life – definitely writing.

It was in the mid 80s and I did my first hike up Mount Washington with my boyfriend. It was a beautiful August day, sunny, blue skies, and we had an early start.

We made it to the treeline (when the mountain turns from forest to rock face). Everything was going well. Then, when were at the point half-way between treeline and the summit, the weather changed – and not gently. Mount Washington is known for having the ‘world’s worst weather.’ One minute it was blue skies and butterflies, the next it was thick mist, drop in temperature, and then as we got chilled, the wind picked up.

Decision time. Neither of us wanted to head back – we’d come so far already. We kept moving upward.

Cairns exist above treeline (small piles of rocks that mark the path), and there were painted markers on the rock face, too, every 20 feet or so. However, we couldn’t see more than two feet in front of us at a time.

This is a rock face, but not the ‘rock face’ referred to here.

Yep, we got lost. No idea where we were other than still on the rock face, and we could tell up from down, but knew there weren’t any trails into the treeline, if we were lucky enough to find treeline before a cliff.

Long, miserable, story cut short…I finally sat down on a rock and said “I quit.” I’d had enough and felt continuing to walk in the cold mist and ridiculous wind was pointless.

Seconds. Literally seconds after I quit, the wind eased, the clouds parted, and, no joke, I was sitting within feet of the Mount Washington Observatory. I could almost reach my arm out and touch the bottom of the building.

It was that moment, the moment of utter quitting due to so many physical and mental elements, when I was closest to my goal. I’ve never forgotten that.

“When you’re ready to quit, you’re closer than you think.”

It’s when you think you’ve pushed yourself as far as you can go, and that another step, or another word is not going to get you any closer, that you’re on the brink of reaching your goal.

If a story isn’t working for me (or, rather, if I’m not listening to my characters), I can push away from the keyboard or toss the pen and notebook onto the floor and suddenly know exactly what it is that I need to put on the page. I don’t recommend waiting for that moment or expecting that moment to happen, and I can’t imagine it happening too often, but, for me, things have worked out just after I reach the breaking point.

Have you ever had that invisible wall push you so hard that you quit — just to discover the solution to the challenge was “right there?” It’s quite powerful.

Lisa J. Jackson is a New England-region journalist and a year-round chocolate and iced coffee lover. She loves working with words, and helping others with their own. As Lisa Haselton, she writes fiction, co-blogs about mystery-related writing topics at Pen, Ink, and Crimes, has an award-winning blog for book reviews and author interviews, and is a chat moderator at The Writer’s Chatroom. Connect with her on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter. 

Read Full Post »

Something from a Writer’s Prompt

I don’t think we’ve had many writing prompts on this blog (and maybe we should consider having a prompt on a regular basis.)

I love prompts mostly because I like to figure out a way to approach a story from a completely different point of view.

Writing Prompt -  a boy and a girl are in the park. The boy is holding a box with something in it that he is going to give the girl – what happens?

If you say that the boy is going to propose to the girl and give her an engagement ring, I swear I’ll just puke.

But, if you say that the the boy has a vial of harvested cells from his newborn baby brother’s umbilical cord that he has smuggled out of the hospital to give the girl so that she can use them in stem-cell therapy in order to live. And when she does live she wants to marry him but wait a minute, she has some of his brothers cells in her, does that make them related? Is she partly now his  brother? Would they be able to get over that situation to live their lives together? Oh and by the way, the younger brother was tragically killed and when the mother finds out that he “lives on” in the girl, she insists that the girl become a member of the family and is invited to Sunday dinners for the rest of time further complicating the lovers’ relationship.

All from a box in the park.

So go ahead, give it a try.

Here’s a photo with some objects, use some or all of them and in the comments below, tell me what would happen in your writer’s world.

***

Wendy Thomas is an award winning journalist, columnist, and blogger who believes that taking challenges in life will always lead to goodness. She is the mother of 6 funny and creative kids and it is her goal to teach them through stories and lessons.

Wendy’s current project involves writing about her family’s experiences with chickens (yes, chickens). (www.simplethrift.wordpress.com)

No hints on this one.

Read Full Post »

Dialogue With The Internal Editor

Lisa Jackson recently wrote about  Shutting Off The Internal Editor For 30 Days by participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo, or NaNo, for short).

You’d think NaNo’s built-in time pressure would be a good enough reason for my internal editor to become silent, but the rule-following librarian that lives in my head seems to be able to keep on talking, no matter what. The last time I did NaNo (in 2008), it took me three hours to get my daily word count done on November 1^st.

While I did get faster over the month, I don’t have that kind of time these days. Last time I did NaNo, I had no children at home. Now I have a toddler to chase after and when he goes to bed, I’m ready to go, too. And those precious early morning hours I used to take for granted are now filled with cars, trucks, pancakes, and battles over teeth-brushing and socks.

So I’ve figured out another way to quiet my nemesis: I’ve been dialoguing with her.

Here’s how you can do it, too.

Exercise: Dialogue with the Internal Editor (adapted from an exercise in Lifelines, by Christina Baldwin)

1. Take a piece of paper and draw a line down the center.
2. The left-hand column is for your writer self. The right-hand column is for your internal editor.
3. Write “I want to write without editing” in the left-hand column. In the right-hand column, write “You need to edit as you go.”
4. Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and then write your (writer’s self) response to your internal editor’s first statement. Once you’ve done that, see what your internal editor’s response is. Keep going until you get to a turning point.
5. If you feel stalled, re-write the original two sentences and start over. Or just keep responding “You can’t make me edit as I go” in the left-hand column. Eventually, the response will change.
6. Keep writing until the dialogue feels complete.
7. Repeat daily or as often as feels helpful.

The first time I did this exercise, last week, I did a lot of repetition of “You can’t make me.” It was all very juvenile. But then something shifted. I got to a place where the response to “You can’t make me,” was  a list of conditions:

• Don’t show the first draft to anyone.
• Don’t throw anything out.
• Don’t get hurt.

Don’t get hurt? Where did that come from?

It turns out my internal editor, like my inner critic, is all about safety. Unfortunately, she doesn’t understand that safety is not worth my soul—but I do. Once I got to this point in the dialogue, everything changed.

My writer self was able to reassure my internal editor.

The next time I did this exercise, I got to the heart of the dialogue much faster. By November 1^st, my internal editor and I should be in sync—at least until December 1^st.

How do you deal with your internal editor?

Diane MacKinnon, MD, is currently a full-time mother, part-time life coach. She is a Master Certified Life Coach, trained by Martha Beck, among others. She is passionate about her son, her writing, and using her mind to create a wonderful present moment.  Find her life coaching blog at www.dianemackinnon.com/blog.

Read Full Post »

To Lie Fallow

Fallow: –adj, 1. (of land) left unseeded after being ploughed and harrowed to regain fertility for a crop. 2. (of an idea, state of mind, etc) undeveloped or inactive, but potentially useful.

It took me a few different dictionaries to find this particular definition of fallow. The first few definitions I read mentioned fallow as “left unseeded” but didn’t mention the part about “to gain fertility for a crop.” That’s the most important part, to my mind.

There are times in our lives as artists that we put out a lot of content or product. Times when our energy is high and we create and create.

Then there are times when we must lie fallow. Not because we are lazy or uninspired, but because we must “regain fertility” in order to create again.

For the past few months, I’ve been in a very creative place. I’ve written an e-book for blended families that I’ve been thinking about for years, I’ve created and delivered teleclasses and in-person classes, I’ve blogged and journaled and created an outline for a nonfiction book I want to write.

When I was on vacation last week, I fully expected my creative output to continue. My son and I were alone together in a comfortable rented house and I expected to enjoy being outside with him (we were near the beach) and I expected to work on my creative projects when he was sleeping.

But that’s not what happened. All of a sudden, I didn’t feel like doing anything. When my son napped the first day of our vacation, I cleaned the kitchen, then started prepping food for dinner. That’s when I noticed that I didn’t feel like writing.

That never happens!

Rather than berate myself for my lack of motivation, I just observed. I asked myself what I wanted to do.

For a day or so, the answer was, “Watch TV.” I went with it: I saw an episode of The X Factor, which I’d never seen before but totally enjoyed. I was on the edge of my seat, holding my breath, listening to all these hopeful young people singing their hearts out.

On Wednesday, I didn’t feel like watching TV anymore. I wanted to read. And journal. So I did.

By now it had occurred to me that perhaps I needed a little downtime. The word “fallow” popped into my head and it seemed to describe how I was feeling. I remembered the times I’ve run a marathon: I don’t usually run for a few weeks after I finish. I “lie fallow” for a while before I get itchy to start running again.

The same thing happened with my writing. On the very last day of my fun and relaxed vacation, an idea for a novel popped into my head so vividly that I grabbed my iPod and recorded about 5 minutes worth of material without stopping.

Now I have a story to write when NaNo begins. I can hardly wait!

How do you feel about your fallow times?

Diane MacKinnon, MD, is currently a full-time mother, part-time life coach. She is a Master Certified Life Coach, trained by Martha Beck, among others. She is passionate about her son, her writing, and using her mind to create a wonderful present moment.  Find her life coaching blog at http://www.dianemackinnon.com/blog.

Read Full Post »

The Mother-daughter Integrity Book Club

I’m thinking about starting a project but I needed some help so I turned, as I often do, to my Facebook friends.

“What are some of the books from *your* youth where the main character showed good old fashioned common sense and a great deal of integrity when challenged. In particular I’m looking for strong girl characters. One example off the top of my head is Pollyanna. For this project I’m not interested in current books.”

Oh and here’s the project. We don’t belong to an organized religion but I’ve always wondered (feared) if my kids are not getting the value training that they might be getting if we did (for the record, I think we do a pretty good job at home but we could always do better) . We’ve got some testing-life’s-boundaries bumps going on and so in order to right a path and to emphasize that your reputation and personal integrity are the two most important things you will ever own, I am going to start a “mother-daughters” book club with these older books where we are going to read the stories and then discuss the actions and decisions. It will be just like a ladies book club but without the wine and cheese.

“What other stories/books can you come up with?” I asked my Facebook friends.

This is what they came up with – a list that simply begs to be shared.

• Nancy Drew comes to mind…and maybe Heidi.
• All of the Oz books — In the books, Dorothy is clever, kind, brave, honest and true. She was most certainly the girl I modeled myself after. Because of the era, there are other components of the series that are less lovely, but L. Frank Baum clearly showed a little girl who had what it took to solve problems for herself.
• Anne of Green Gables and Pippi Longstocking come to mind
• “Knee Deep in Thunder” obscure but wonderful journey of self-discovery. Also “The Borrowers” series by Mary Norton- Arrietty (my daughter is named after her) is pretty fearless.
• Little House on the Prairie
• Little Women.
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
• A Wrinkle in Time. by Madeline L’Engle.
  Also can’t ignore Harry Potter series; Hermione is the smart one!
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
  St Francis of Assisi
  Zorba the Greek
• A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton Porter, which I believe is back in print. She has backbone in spades! I think I read my Mom’s copy from when she & her sisters were young – my grandmother still had a couple of shelves full of kid’s books in their spare room for many years. I think I acquired my fondness for Zane Grey there as well, but most of his female characters are disappointing in this regard.
  The Dana Girls series (same author as Nancy Drew) were always my favorite mysteries, and they and their friends always seem to manage for themselves quite well.
• Scout from To Kill A Mockingbird
• Laura Ingalls
• 33 titles in The Happy Hollisters by Jerry West was actually written by Andrew E. Svenson(looked on Amazon they are $4.98 on kindle or $9.98 paperback) geard to 6 to 12 year olds . I read them all many times to myself and read them to my younger brother and sister. He contributed to established series as Franklin W. Dixon (The Hardy Boys) and as Laura Lee Hope (The Bobbsey Twins). The first volume in his own original series, The Happy Hollisters
• An Old Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott. Still one of my favorite books ever. Any LMA book, really, but that’s the best.
• I’m also going to add to this list _ From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler – one of my all-time favorites
• These are not that old but the American Dolls have great stories. I read the whole Molly series to my daughter when she was about 4 of 5 and when she was old enough she read them to herself. Then she read all the other series. I like Molly because if took place when my mother was about the same age.
• Nancy Drew! She was my inspiration.
• I loved Pippi Longstocking!
• Donna Parker mysteries
• “Call me Heller that’s my Name” she knew what to do when caught on a train trestle and the train came. Anne of Green Gables
• “Cowslip, Slave Girl “was a very good book don’t know if it is in print
• Nancy Drew, and Trixie Belden….They were my favorites growing up!
• Anne Frank

What favorite stories from your youth are missing from this list?

***

Wendy Thomas is an award winning journalist, columnist, and blogger who believes that taking challenges in life will always lead to goodness. She is the mother of 6 funny and creative kids and it is her goal to teach them through stories and lessons.

Wendy’s current project involves writing about her family’s experiences with chickens (yes, chickens). (www.simplethrift.wordpress.com)

Pollyanna starts tonight.

Read Full Post »

Hamlet and Thank you cards

The other day I was in our local department store picking up a few items. I’m one of those people who always (and I mean always) writes down what I need before I enter a store. Rarely do I ever come out with something that is not on my list. That particular day I needed detergent, a binder, and a box of Thank you cards. As I was walking down one aisle to get to store’s back corner, I passed a display of Lego minifigures.

For $2.99 you could get an unknown but always interesting little Lego character. In this series (series 8) there were 16 different figures available. There was a pirate, an alien, and even a football player. There was a fairy, a DJ, and a tiny Santa Claus. These little guys came in small sealed packets and you took your chances with which one you got. But of course, not only was there no Lego minifigure on my list of things to get, but I can also tell you that I truly did not need a minifigure in my life.

What I needed was a box of Thank you cards.

And yet those minifigures called out to me. “Buy me,” they whispered in my ear. “Take me home.”

I have always been a sucker with regard to surprises that rely on luck and chance. One of my all-time favorite gifts was a candle that had secrets buried in the wax. I watched that candle burn for hours as it slowly exposed each of my tiny treasures. I enjoy taking a chance and then figuring out if somehow the world is trying to send me a message.

So I said, “what the heck,” and I put a Lego packet into my basket.

Kid that I am, I opened the bag as soon as I got to my car in the parking lot and I immediately put it together.

I can honestly tell you, without doubt, that I ended up getting the neatest Lego minifigurine ever made.

“It’s perfect mom,” my daughter Addy told me.

“Wow,” said Spencer, “it’s like it was made just for you.”

This is the Lego minifigure that the world decided to give me on my way to buying a box of cards – a little tiny Hamlet holding his good buddy Yorick’s skull.

Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy; he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? (Hamlet, V.i)

Indeed, although I’m not sure where my gibes are now, I do know that my little Hamlet now sits near my computer, holding what remains of Yorick and giving me enough inspiration to get this post up before midnight.

***

Wendy Thomas is an award winning journalist, columnist, and blogger who believes that taking challenges in life will always lead to goodness. She is the mother of 6 funny and creative kids and it is her goal to teach them through stories and lessons.

Wendy’s current project involves writing about her family’s experiences with chickens (yes, chickens). (www.simplethrift.wordpress.com)

There are still 15 other figures in this series, just saying.

Read Full Post »

Most Improved Writing Student

In 1982, while a graduate student at Columbia University, I taught Introduction to Freshman Composition, a remedial course for bright but inarticulate young men just entering the college. (Columbia was still all-male back then.) I’d never taken Freshman Composition of any kind, so I found the class useful and interesting. Indeed, I developed an appreciation for fluid non-fiction as a result of the class, and the skills that I learned by teaching have served me well. For even though my heart lies in writing literary fiction, my bank account depends on my ability to write clear, expository, prose.

I earned my PhD and moved to Vermont, creating a free-lance career outside the academic mainstream. I lost touch with all my students and most of my colleagues from my New York days – until 2009.  That’s when I received an email from a former student, who wrote to thank me for my tutelage.

Daniel Chamovitz, that former student, is now a professor of biology at Tel Aviv University, where among other classes, he teaches a course called “Scientific Writing in English for PhD Students”. In his letter, he explained how a student had asked him how he learned to write, prompting him to remember the C- I gave him for what he now says, “was, in retrospect, a very pitiful piece of work.”

In his long and lovely letter, he says that his success as a scientist is due as much to his writing skills as it is to any scientific achievements. It concludes with thanks “for the path you started me on.” I never dreamed I’d had such an impact on any of those young men, let alone such a positive one that would be remembered three decades later.

Of course I replied, and we’ve maintained the correspondence. When we met in 1982, Danny was a mere 18 to my mature 24. Now, that six-year gap seems insignificant. (My youngest child and his oldest are the same age.) But best of all, we’re now both authors. Danny’s book, What A Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses of Your Garden – and Beyond, was just published in a joint venture between Scientific American and FSG. And Danny is coming to read from it at this year’s Brattleboro Literary Festival.

The 2012 Brattleboro Literary Festival takes place October 12-14. It’s a fabulous way to spend a weekend in downtown Brattleboro, Vermont, a gateway community with a vibrant literary and arts economy – and really good food – in the southeast corner of the state.

I go every year. Hearing authors read aloud is a treat; meeting them is a thrill; talking books with other book-lovers a great way to spend a weekend. And this year, on Saturday afternoon, I’ll be introducing my former C- student, whose book, What A Plant Knows deserves an A+.

Deborah Lee Luskin is novelist, essayist and educator. She is a regular commentator for Vermont Public Radio, a Visiting Scholar for the Vermont Humanities Council and the author of the award winning novel, Into The Wilderness. For more information, visit her website at www.deborahleeluskin.com

Read Full Post »